In a computed tomography system ("CT system"), an x-ray source is collimated to form a fan beam with a defined fan beam angle and fan beam width. The fan beam is oriented to lie within the x-y plane of a Cartesian coordinate system, termed the "imaging plane", and to be transmitted through an imaged object to an x-ray detector array oriented within the imaging plane.
The detector array is comprised of detector elements which each measure the intensity of transmitted radiation along a ray projected from the x-ray source to that particular detector element. The detector elements can be organized along an arc, matching the fan beam angle each to intercept x-rays from the x-ray source along a different ray of the fan beam.
The intensity of the transmitted radiation received by each detector element in the detector array is dependent on the attenuation of the x-ray beam along a ray by the imaged object. Each detector element .alpha. produces an intensity signal I.sub..alpha. dependent on the intensity of transmitted radiation striking that detector element .alpha..
The x-ray source and detector array may be rotated on a gantry within the imaging plane so that the fan beam intercepts the imaged object at different angles. At each angle, a projection is acquired comprised of the intensity signals from each of the detector elements .alpha.. The projections at each of these different angles together form a tomographic projection set.
Normally a projection set will be taken over 360.degree. of gantry rotation, however, it is known to obtain a projection set with as little as 180.degree. plus half the subtended fan beam angle, by making use of the fact that the attenuation of an x-ray by the imaged object is relatively unchanged when the x-rays travel in opposite directions along a single ray. An attempt to reconstruct an image with less than a projection set will normally lead to image artifacts caused by the missing data.
A gantry that may support the x-ray tube and detector array over rotations of more than 180.degree. is costly to construct and can be bulky.
The acquired tomographic projection set is typically stored in numerical form for computer processing to "reconstruct" a slice image according reconstruction algorithms known in the art. The reconstructed slice images may be displayed on a conventional CRT tube or may be converted to a film record by means of a computer controlled camera.
The volume subtended by the fan beam, as intercepted by the detector elements during rotation of the gantry, defines the field-of-view of the CT system.
The amount of data required to reconstruct a CT image is a function of the CT system's field-of-view, the larger the field-of-view, the more data that must be collected and processed by the CT system and thus the longer the time required before an image can be reconstructed. The acquisition of additional data in each projection also increases the cost and number of the components of the CT system.
Therefore, for imaging compact structures within the body, it would be desirable to limit the field-of-view to an angle commensurate with the cross-sectional area of that compact structure. Such a reduction in field-of-view, accompanied by a reduction in the size of the fan beam, would reduce the total dose of x-rays received by the patient. In a CT machine constructed for only imaging compact structures, a reduced field-of-view would reduce the cost of the machine and provide increased image reconstruction speed as a result of the reduced amount of data required to be processed. Also, as is known in the art, smaller field of view images may be reconstructed faithfully using fewer projection angles, thereby further reducing the reconstruction times. The reduced cost of such a machine would result primarily from the reduced number of detectors and associated data handling circuitry required, and from the less powerful image reconstruction processor required to handle the amount of reduced data. Cost savings from a resulting simplified mechanical construction might also be achieved.
Unfortunately, for a CT system to accurately reconstruct images of a compact structure within an attenuating body, it is ordinarily necessary that the entire body containing the compact structure be within the CT system's field-of-view. Even when the only structure of interest is centrally located and its attenuation properties are very different than those of the rest of the section, such as the spine within an abdominal section, conventional CT methods require that substantially the entire object be within the field of view. If the body containing the compact structure extends beyond the field-of-view of the CT system, then projections at some gantry angles will include attenuation effects by volume elements of the body not present in projections at other gantry angles. For the present discussion, these volume elements present in only some projections are termed "external volumes".
In the reconstruction process, the attenuation caused by external volumes is erroneously assigned to other volume elements in the reconstructed image. This erroneous assignment produces artifacts, manifested as shading or cupping, and sometimes as streaks, in the reconstructed tomographic image and are termed "truncation artifacts".
Selective material imaging by use of x-ray transmission measurements at multiple energies is known. However, when used in a CT mode, prior methods acquired data for the entire object.